


we'll cover the bases as we go

by lovelit



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Alola-chihou | Alola Region (Pokemon), F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:27:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29289075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelit/pseuds/lovelit
Summary: “Okay,” she manages, and N looks more than a little relieved that she’s not snapping anymore. “Well. We’ve both found what we were looking for then, right? Come on, let me… buy you lunch, or something? For the yelling.”(N’s answering smile is like thesun, and six years without seeing him has left Touko so unprepared for it that it’s almost an effort to turn and walk without falling flat on her face.)
Relationships: N | Natural Harmonia Gropius/Touko | Hilda
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	we'll cover the bases as we go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EvilMuffins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/gifts).



She finds him again, finally, in Alola. And it— well, it’s been _six years_ , and Touko has seen more of the world than she ever would have predicted when she first left Nuvema, and it’s not that she hasn’t appreciated that aspect of this all but _it’s been six years_.

“Yes,” N says, “You said that already.” He still speaks too quickly, his sentences clipped and rushed. That hasn’t changed. _He_ hasn’t changed, even if he seems to have somehow gotten even more ridiculously tall. Even if there’s a streak of sunburn across the bridge of his nose that keeps pulling in Touko’s eyes.

“I was _looking_ for you!” she ends up snapping to distract herself from that, and because it’s true. “This whole time, I’ve been trying to find you again!”

N blinks at her. And then blinks again. And then, almost carefully, says, “Oh. I’ve been looking for you too. Not the whole time, but I was in Unova four years ago. Since then.”

And that… well. It takes the wind out of Touko’s sails pretty quickly. It’s harder to be righteously angry about N making her chase him all over the world when she’s apparently been doing the same thing to him in return.

She ends up putting her head in her hand for a minute, aware of N hovering awkwardly ahead of her - he’s not good at being _still_ , and she’d noticed it when she’d thought back over their interactions before and so she’s almost reassured to see that that, too, hasn’t changed - until she sighs and looks up again.

“Okay,” she manages, and N looks more than a little relieved that she’s not snapping anymore. “Well. We’ve both found what we were looking for then, right? Come on, let me… buy you lunch, or something? For the yelling.”

(N’s answering smile is like the _sun_ , and six years without seeing him has left her so unprepared for it that it’s almost an effort to turn and walk without falling flat on her face.)

* * *

They end up in a little restaurant in Paniola Town, trading stories about the last few years.

The fact N doesn’t have Zekrom anymore is a surprise, although perhaps it shouldn’t be. He doesn’t seem surprised, in comparison, that Reshiram is still Touko’s companion.

“I did hear things,” he tells her. “I kept going to places where I’d heard about a strange white dragon and an unbeatable trainer. But you’d always moved on by the time I got there.”

“I followed stories about Zekrom,” Touko agrees. “But they dried up after a couple years. I guess now I know why.”

N looks thoughtful. “The girl who inherited it wasn’t much of a battler. Well, she was good at it, but it didn’t seem like it was what she wanted to do the most. I think she ended up settling in Nimbasa. Because of the Theater? But I guess you can’t really use Zekrom for something like that.”

Something in Touko twists uncomfortably at what he’s saying, and she ends up pushing the curry on her plate around, not quite sure what to say.

She knows what N always thought of battling, even if he _had_ battled her. She knows that she lives and breathes battle, and - as far as she knows - her team does too. Is that girl, the one who’d charmed N enough for him to pass on Zekrom, not someone he’d prefer the company of, considering?

N doesn’t seem to actually notice her discomfort, but he comments, “It’s good that Reshiram ended up with someone like you, though. Zekrom doesn’t like to battle, so much, unless it’s against Reshiram? But Reshiram - I mean, I didn’t hear its voice for long, but it definitely enjoyed battling.”

His casual musing undoes the knot in her chest before it can really take hold, and Touko leans back in her chair with a sigh, even as she smiles across the table at him. She’d forgotten how much N can sweep the ground out from under someone, just by talking. Just by saying things she doesn’t expect to hear. He doesn’t even realize he’s doing it, she’s pretty sure.

(She’s missed him. In retrospect, the fact that she’s spent six years trying to find him again means that that realization isn’t exactly a surprise, or that it at least _shouldn’t_ be.

Still. She’s found him, now.)

* * *

They keep on around Alola after that, together now. Because there’s no sense in not finishing up sightseeing, really, and it’s not like there’s anywhere else that either of them _need_ to be. Touko wants to go back to Unova after this, because it’s been nearly eighteen months since she last managed to stop by and see Cheren and Bianca, and nearly as long since she last visited her mom. But there’s no real urgency to it.

Especially not now that she’s actually found N again. Touko isn’t one for settling down, and there’s still a whole lot more of the world that she wants to see, but there’s no urgency to it. She’s done the thing that was _important_. She’s saved the world, she’s traveled the world, and now she’s found N again. She’ll drag him home with her when she goes, and then she’ll drag him along with her when she gets the itch to see somewhere new again.

She gets the feeling he won’t protest at all, and it’s a warm feeling, bright and burning in her chest like Reshiram’s fire.

In the meantime, Alola is— well, Alola was great anyway. Alola is even better now that she has more than just her team for company.

They travel over all of the islands, Touko battling and catching Pokémon that N then sits and asks, very seriously, about whether they want to stay with her. She ends up releasing a Pikipek that turns out to be younger than she’d thought and nervous about being separated from its mother, and she’s glad for the knowledge. She also ends up gifting a rather confused-looking N with a little lavender-tinted Vulpix, after it apparently tells him very firmly that it doesn’t want to battle but that it _will_ come with them, thank you.

N speaks to a lot of the other Pokémon they meet, too, apparently very enamored with the Ride Pokémon in particular - they seem to all love their jobs, apparently, and he’s fascinated by it. He tries to talk to the Pyukumuku on the beaches, too, and to urge them into the ocean, but ends up informing her with some concern that they’re not very good communicators, _and_ not inclined to move on their own. 

His first attempt at communicating with the Pyukumuku ends with Touko tossing them back into the water, while N picks them up and carries them very carefully down instead. The second time around, his Pyukumuku apparently notice what’s happening to their brethren, and start complaining that they want to fly as well. It turns into N attempting to toss one himself, demonstrating an _absolute_ lack of throwing ability, and - after she’s managed to compose herself - Touko taking over for him.

(That night, camped out with him on the beach because he wants to do another Pyukumuku sweep in the morning before they have to leave, Touko stares up at the stars and realizes that maybe, just maybe, she might be a little bit in love with N. Maybe, just maybe, she might be a lot in love with N.)

* * *

Not much changes after her realization, admittedly. They still keep traveling together, and it’s not as though it’s really awkward, or anything; N doesn’t seem to notice anything, and… well. Touko might have only just realized, but it’s not like the feelings are _new_. It’s not like they’re even all that surprising. She spent years looking for him. Hasn’t she been a little bit in love with him this entire time?

Really, the only thing that’s changed is that she’s aware of it, and she has confirmation that it’s more than survived prolonged contact with him. That it’s not just a crush born from being set up against him while still finding him so intriguing, and that she actually genuinely enjoys his company.

Which, okay, the plan to drag him home and then around the world with her might have been a giveaway, too. So it really isn’t a surprise, honestly.

She doesn’t act on her feelings when she realizes them, but there’s no problem with that. It doesn’t feel urgent. The longer they spend traveling together, the more convinced Touko is that she doesn’t have to worry about losing him again. N shows no indication of wanting to go off without her, and he seems amenable to her idea of going back to Unova for a few months and then traveling somewhere else. 

So things stay like that for a month. There’s a festival on Melemele Island that they’d decided to stick around for, and then fly back to Unova the next day. 

The festival is like nothing Touko has been to before, and from the expression on N’s face, she’s not alone in that. There’s a parade, and food stalls that N insists on trying things from and then has half of everything swiped by Vulpix where it’s sitting on his shoulder. Touko ends up buying a beautiful handmade hairpin from one of the other stalls, and it isn’t her usual style, but she falls in love with it when she sees it and then even moreso when N reaches out to help secure it for her.

The whole night is just— it’s mesmerizing. It would be even if she were on her own, but she _isn’t_ on her own. She hasn’t been on her own since she found N again.

There are fireworks later in the night, and they end up finding a spot a little way back from the crowd to watch them. Vulpix has been returned to its ball, too tired and well-fed to stay attached to N’s shoulder, and so it’s just the two of them now. Touko watches the fireworks, and more than that she watches N watch the fireworks, and… well. There’s no urgent need to say anything, and it’s not as though she couldn’t be content to let things carry on like this for longer.

But tonight has been beautiful. Tonight has been almost perfect.

So Touko catches N’s hand in her own, making him turn and look down at her.

“Before we go back to Unova,” she starts, and sudden nervousness nearly stalls her but N is looking at her so openly that she has to continue. “There’s something I want to do.”

N blinks down at her, and then nods, though he clearly doesn’t know what she has in mind. He doesn’t move as she reaches up her other hand to rest behind his head, but he lets her pull him down into a kiss. He doesn’t seem to know what to do with that, either, but he doesn’t freeze up or push her away. He just doesn’t seem to know what to do with his mouth, and he hasn’t quite gotten to working it out by the time Touko pulls back.

His free hand has come to rest hesitantly on her hip, though, and he hasn’t let go of the hand that she took hold of.

“Oh,” he says, after a moment, sounding almost dazed but certainly not displeased. “That’s. Oh?”

Touko huffs out a breath that’s halfway to a laugh, and tugs him back in again. This time, he at least manages to work out to open his mouth when Touko’s tongue sweeps over his lips, and when she finally brings herself to pull back again, there’s a flush over his cheeks that isn’t sunburn this time.

“Oh,” he manages again. And then, more abruptly and less dazed-sounding, “Oh. Reshiram is going to be glad. It kept asking when we were finally going to do that.”

Touko blinks up at him for a moment, and then bursts into helpless laughter that she can only muffle against N’s chest. Of course. Of _course_ the legendary dragon that chose her has been needling him about their potential love life. They couldn’t have it any other way, could they?

(Touko _wouldn’t_ have it any other way. But then again, she’s pretty sure that N wouldn’t, either.)


End file.
